On January 14, 1925 in Tokyo, Yukio Mishima (real name Kimitake Hiraokathe) - a Japanese writer, the greatest novelist of his generation and a supporter of the national movement, was born. In former times, his grandfather was the governor of Sakhalin. Yukio Mishima was raised by his grandmother Natsuko, a woman from an aristocratic family who was able to read in French and German languages. His first novel “Confessions of a Mask” (1949) brought fame to the young writer. At the age of 26 he had already published 22 books and 6 of them were novels. ”Money and materialism is in control, modern Japan is ugly.”
On the morning of November 25, 1970 Yukio Mishima arrived at the Ichigaya headquarters of the Japanese Self-Defense Force together with four other members of the nationalist Tatenokai (The Shield Society) military group. The place has been chosen intentionally as in the same building there was an international military court of Tokyo, «Japanese Nuremberg» that in 1946 has condemned Japanese military generals as «military criminals».
At the age of 45, Mishima was still in zenith of the glory and simultaneously continued to publish about spiritual decomposition of his country and its obedience to the USA. After some months, together with his closest follower, student Masakatsu Morita, he made a decision to die. Mishima and four members of “The Shield Society” arrived at the appointed meeting with the commander-in-chief, got into the office, tied him down and barricaded the office door. He demanded that the entire Eastern division would be assembled in front of the headquarters. Dressed in uniform of “The Shield Society”, wearing big gloves and an armband with the symbol of “The Rising Sun”, Mishima started his speech. Some journalists were already informed. Eight hundred soldiers, who have gathered in front of the headquarters, were listening to his appeals to rise for the glory of the emperor against the “disgraceful” constitution imposed by the USA to Japan after its defeat. “Your soul is pure, we know it, only our desperate desire to show what the real man should do, has forced us to do it”,- said Mishima from a balcony of the commander-in-chief. The assembled regiment refused to listen, instead they were yelling and jeering when Mishima tried to speak. Mishima steped forward and shouted, "Tenno Heika banzai" ("Long live his imperial Majesty!"), then turned and reentered the office, sat in a kneeling position, unbuttoned his tunic, and drove the sword into his belly. He asked Morita to stop his pain by beheading as bushido, the Samurai code of Honor, demands. But the hands of the young man were shivering and he couldn’t behead him from only one blow, so one of the comrades did it. After that, Morita performed a seppuku (hara-kiri) ceremony.
